Letters to the Editor - The Lakeville Journal - 12-16-21

Solar lights are a very worthy goal

Hello readership of the Lakeville Journal, Jean Saliter here, current President of the Tri-State Chamber of Commerce (TSC). I am hoping everyone is healthy heading through this holiday season. Let’s talk lights, shall we?

For two decades now, the TSC has run the ever-popular Adopt-A-Tree (AAT) program down Main Street in Lakeville and Salisbury. First I would like to thank the 110 businesses and individuals who supported our efforts this year, with very special thanks to the sponsors National Iron Bank, Town of Salisbury, Salisbury Marketplace Square … and to Salisbury Garden Center for sensibly securing trees for us early and ahead of supply issues.

A few fun facts about the way things were: 3,000 feet of extension cords weighing close to 200 lbs. needed to be distributed, placed, stretched, hooked up and ultimately plugged in (which due to insurance requirements could only be performed by a licensed electrician), costing the host building one month of electric, and the TSC about $2,000 in contract labor.

As for the lights themselves, many of the strands had withstood the test of time, trial and temperatures for years. This collective of antiquated illumination was dangerous to sort, with easily broken glass bulbs and a popping burnout soundtrack. All volunteers on the sorting task were equipped with Bacitracin and a box of bandaids. True story. This is not a sustainable practice: it actually, physically hurts.

It is 2021. Through the generosity of a local bank who heard our plight, we the Tri-State Chamber of Commerce stepped out of archaic time and into the 21st century with solar light strands. Volunteer and paid man power was slashed dramatically! Volunteers don’t grow on trees, but solar lights can, and will, for AAT.

As President of the Tri-State Chamber of Commerce, I welcome a discussion with you, Mr. Delessert, as to how we can improve our solar illumination for the 2022-2023 season. Until then, I sincerely hope the old-style glass light strands that were strung on your tree, just for you, by the AAT Committee Chair the very next day, will warm your mind and erase any sinister thoughts. Also, please stop calling her.

Jean Saliter

Salisbury

So sad to see Alan and Robert leave

We were devastated when we first heard the news that Alan Wager and Robert Levinstein had resigned from the Sharon Playhouse. These two men have rejuvenated the theater over the last four years with the professional quality of each production; more importantly, they brought the community back onto the stage and into the seats. Ticket sales soared in comparison to the five years before their administration.

Of even greater significance, they continued to bring entertainment to our community during the worst days of the pandemic with concerts, shows and movies in order to ameliorate the tension and fear of those days. No other theater in the Tri-state area did as much.

As we all know, their ebullient personalities, their graciousness, their hearty welcomes and their wonderfully outlandish wardrobes, including the shoes that flashed as they walked, were an integral part of the theater’s charm.

For four years they were the heart of the playhouse and in the hearts of hundreds of people. Although their leaving is a terrible loss to our community we thank them for those years of joy and wish them luck.

Macey Levin

Gloria Miller

Taconic

Gratitude for so much community support

On behalf of the Lakeville Hose Company, we would like to thank the very generous businesses in town which helped with Hometown Holidays this year: Lime Rock Park, Salisbury Volunteer Ambulance, Interlaken Inn, Hotchkiss School, LaBonne’s, Lisa Keller, Noble Horizons, On the Run, Black Rabbit and the Lakeville Hose Company Ladies Auxiliary. Without everyone’s continued support we would not be able to do what we do.

Thank you.

Marie Castagna and

The Lakeville Hose Company Hometown Holiday Committee

Lakeville

To your health, at the holidays and for the new year

“Come, gentlemen, I hope we shall drink down all unkindness.” William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor

Ah, it’s the holidays — a plethora of them, all sizes and sects, to brighten our world when days are short and light scarce — at least at our latitude. The holidays in pre-pandemic days were a glitter with cheer, personal and social, quiet moments of internal smiles, the din of mingling celebrators at gatherings big and small.  A toast was a familiar call together at these events: “Let us raise our glasses to peace, health and prosperity — the coming of a new year” — a collaborative gesture of unity, goodwill met with glee and shouts of agreement. A raft of favorite songs merrily tuned to joy, snow and well wishes from Deck the Halls to My Grown Up Christmas List.

In the past, worries at this time of year were concerns for colleagues or friends who may just have imbibed too much cheer, for one’s tardiness in securing that oft-requested toy for under the tree, for the piper to be paid for excesses of seasonal cheer and festive splendor. Of course those longing for a white Christmas balanced those wanting no snow. The coming of the holidays, religious and secular, lifted folks up, filled houses of worship, dressed the main streets from NYC to River Forest, Indiana, in red, green, gold and Santa. Here at close of 2021, raising a glass to holiday toast peace, health and prosperity is exhaustingly weighty countering kitchen table, Democracy, world and planet uncertainties.

Yet with gusto, I toast health to you and your loved ones. I toast physical health: being safe from everyday body wear and tear, safe from a deadly disease, safe from gun killings in schools, at societal upheavals, or as disagreements metastasize to threats. My toast to your health includes preserving our democratic way of life from foreign aggressors, from surging domestic attacks on rights, on law, on trust, on decency. Over decades, I can’t recall being wary of such turbulence over voting, an unalienable right, being denied and now, incredibly, once cast to be overruled by state legislatures. How taxing a task to keep Democracy safe from threats: unmitigated rancor toward differences, ambitious wielding of misinformation, profound willingness to absorb tall tales, dark tales, self- destructive tales. But nonetheless here’s to your physical and constitutional health.

My toast to your health includes healthy life for the planet. The earth is massing ever increasing natural disasters: fire, water, winds as well as resource scarcity.  It is clear that our behaviors are our destiny — things you take care of take care of you.

So here’s to your health, here’s to our health, here’s to holiday cheer. Raise your glass.

“When wealth is lost, nothing is lost; when health is lost, something is lost; when character is lost, all is lost.” Billy Graham

Kathy Herald-Marlowe

Sharon

Hearts illuminated by lit candles and wisdom

In this time of lighting candles, strategies and combined efforts to pull through tough times and ongoing concerns,, I offer this reflection to encourage us all to see the healing power of helping, community and energy that sustains and inspires. Each person, issue and life journey is worthy of shared consideration.

It takes a village to remember who and what happened with all views factored in as authentically as possible with time to delve deeper for evidence to understand ‘what really happened’ or what is causing problems below the surface or even as officially reported. Looking beyond the physical realm of a person’s biology and actions during one’s lifetime is can be meaningful to relatives, friends and wider communities over generations.

We carry on traditions and community ties even with many challenges. World views are changing, hopefully for the better in terms of more accurate and collaborative for the greater good.

Historical and spiritual wisdom as well as modern guidance online and in person and through education can feed our souls and remind us of the great value of how we live in our hearts and choose to connect not merely how long we live or manage to survive.

At this time we can take a few moments of quiet, time to connect peacefully with ourselves and others with a walk  or gathering day or night and efforts to form meaningful teams of support to explore ideas and concerns and join efforts with others locally and beyond to help more people feel included, valued and supported.

Thanks to all working along these lines even with good intentions, many say that’s where it all begins. Best wishes to everyone in these last weeks of 2021 and into the formative years of this decade. All hands and hearts on deck with teamwork and time to reflect.

Our hearts are knit together

Like a quilt of vibrant hues

We feel the chill of winter

The sting of bitter news

Searching for a way to heal

We form a dozen crews

Together we craft a vision

To ward off the blues

Each season is full of challenges

Yet also many a gift

When we are confused or weary

Others can give us a lift

Finding our way home again

Our paths tend not to drift

Joining hands as circles of friends

The right embracing the left

Catherine Palmer Paton

Falls Village